Category Archives: Tariff Design Support Documents

This tool assists municipalities calculate the total cost of a network upgrade for the purpose of integrating new generators into the network.

As renewable energy costs decline and companies strive to decarbonise their power supply, there is a growing call for municipalities to facilitate wheeling of electricity across their distribution networks. This paper explores how municipalities can calculate use-of-system charges for providing access to their networks for wheeling (Dippenaar et al, 2022).

This spreadsheet assists municipalities determine their avoided purchase costs when an embedded generator exports electricity into the municipality’s distribution grid (SEA, 2022).

This paper analysis the impact of small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) on the cost of running South Africa’s power system. It investigates whether utility-scale solar PV is cheaper than embedded generation. SSEG reduces overall system costs by reducing electricity losses and resulting fuel expenditure, and, in instances where peak demand is reduced, by reducing capital expenditure on network upgrades and peaking power plants. However, the upfront capital cost of utility-scale solar PV is lower (due to economies of scale) and usually has a higher capacity factor (due to optimum location and orientation, and the use of trackers) when compared to SSEG. This paper quantifies the tradeoffs associated with installing SSEG in various sectors in South Africa compared to installing the same amount of utility-scale PV. A comprehensive full-system model was built to answer this question. (SEA, 2021)

NERSA developed the Cost of Supply (COS) Framework for licensed electricity distributors (‘licensees’) in South Africa. The framework will be used as a guideline to licensees when developing their COS studies.

The NRS 058 is a draft Cost of Supply methodology for application in the electricity distribution industry. The NRS 058 provides a deeper level of detail to NERSA’s Cost of Supply Framework, and the two documents can therefore be used in conjunction.

This paper which was presented at the AMEU Conference 2019 explores the impact of some of the approved municipal SSEG tariffs on municipal revenue and customer ‘business case’ and outlines key tariff elements to balance access and cost recovery, until such time as detailed costing studies provide specific tariff building blocks (SEA, 2019).

Summarises the principles for setting SSEG tariff, with a focus on solar PV, and discusses revenue impact and customer business case considerations. Case studies are presented and broad guidelines given for tariff setting (Sustainable Energy Africa, 2019).

This is is presentation of the excel spreadsheet model that assists municipalities with solar PV SSEG tariff design in a way that balances municipal revenue requirements with customer business case for Solar PV installations. The spreadsheet model is downloadable separately (Genesis, SALGA & GIZ, 2017).